BREAKING: ‘One D&D’ – Next Edition Announced, Available for Playtest

At Wizards presents, WotC unveiled their plans to launch the “next generation” of D&D. Check out—and playtest—One D&D.

Have you ever wanted to watch someone bend over backward to avoid saying the words ‘new edition’ for a solid hour? If so, you’ll want to check out the videos from Wizards Presents. WotC announced at their “next generation” of the “new evolution” of D&D, coming in 2024.

And it’s playtesting starting today. Codenamed One D&D, the new ruleset promises to be backward compatible with 5th Edition, but to also bring some fundamental changes to the underlying rules.

One D&D Reveal Trailer

I think Chris Perkins puts it best in the trailer, it’s time for something that’s “just D&D”. And that’s very true, because much like Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40K, the idea of editions is fading. D&D is adapting, like many games are, into the sort of “living edition” where the game is updated as needed.

Which is kind of where they’ve been already. The game has seen several errata (some major) since its release eight years ago. And with the ability to roll out updates via D&D Beyond, which will now start providing digital/physical bundling, it’s easier to make sure you get the most up-to-date rules.

But hey speaking of digital:

D&D Digital

Alongside One D&D we got a look at the new WotC-generated virtual tabletop.

All of this is getting rolled out in 2024. But the playtest starts now. It starts today, in fact. At 12pm PST, you can follow the link below and get your first look at the playtest packet. First up? Character origins, or, how One D&D is going to reimagine character creation. New takes on backgrounds, race, and more.

One D&D Unearthed Arcana: Character Origins

This is the first playtest packet. This will showcase the new rules:

• Character Races. These are the Race options being considered for the Player’s Handbook— all with updated design.
• Character Backgrounds. Here you’ll see the fun role that a character’s Background is going to play in helping flesh out the character’s origin.
• Starting Languages. This section specifies the number of languages a character knows when created.
• Feats. Every 1st-level Feat mentioned herein appears in the “Feats” section, which contains both new and revised Feats.

Learn more about the Next Generation of D&D

Happy Adventuring

Author: J.R. Zambrano

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]